


This Is Not Explicit

by RoseLaflesh



Series: Learning to Dance [4]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Cuddling, F/F, Fluff, Porn Mention, Short One Shot, Silly, light amidot, poking a bit of fun at fan fictions, sleep over
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 01:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8125741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseLaflesh/pseuds/RoseLaflesh
Summary: Peridot discovers fan fictions.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I might say this to myself with each new story, but this is my favorite yet. It at least has Peridot say the best line I've ever written.

It was a lazy afternoon. Steven and Amethyst were competing in a racing game. Since they had only two controllers, Peridot sat on the bed, waiting to play the winner. To pass the time, she scanned the Internet with the tablet computer Steven had given her. So far she hadn’t found anything of interest, until she came across a forum filled with Camp Pining Heart stories.

“Oh my gosh, look at this!” Peridot shoved the screen into Amethyst’s face.

“Not right now, Percy,” Amethyst said, trying to look around the tablet and keep her eyes on the game.

“Earth’s information networks are more extensive than I thought. There’s a whole bunch of Camp Pining Heart stories. This must be where the writers keep their ideas before they put them on the air, and look, so much Percy and Pierre stories. I told you they intended those two to get together.”

Amethyst let out a frustrated groan as she crashed her car into a wall, giving Steven the last minute lead. 

“Really? Let me see,” Steven asked, having just won the race.

“Okay!” Peridot happily handed her tablet over.

Steven let out a little laugh. “Peridot, these are fan fictions.”

“Fan fictions?” Peridot took her tablet back to look the stories over more closely.

“Yeah, they’re written by other people who like the show.”

“Why?” Peridot selected a story at random. It was about a dinosaur who eats half the campers. As an official Camp Pining Heart story, she would have admired its daring. As a story written by a random human who has no connection to the show beyond being a fellow fan, it was nonsense.

“Well, lots of reasons. Some people like the show but wish it would tell some different stories, and other people like pretending they really are writers for the show while coming up with their own ideas. In fact, if you go on this one site, ourownfun.com, you’ll see tons of fan fictions. I’ve already uploaded a few Crying Breakfast Friend fics. Just make sure to only read the stories rated for General Audiences. Sometimes fan fictions can get… pretty weird.” A blush started to work its way onto Steven's cheeks.

“How weird?”

“Well sometimes people… well they, uh… I really don’t know how to explain this,” Steven said with an awkward laugh, “Amethyst?” 

“Hey, I’m no nerd reading fake stories on the Internet,” Amethyst said as she started a new single player game to regain her pride from the lost match.

“Can they get weirder than an extinct species of Earth’s fauna eating half the campers despite being a known herbivore?”

“Sorta?” Steven said slowly, “I don’t really want to go into detail about it, but the ratings mean how bad stuff in the story can get. Just stick to stuff rated General Audiences and you’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” Peridot said as she searched up the site Steven mentioned.

She read another fan fiction while she and Steven waited for Amethyst to finish up her single player game. They kept playing, with Steven recommending a few fan fictions for Peridot to read when it wasn’t her turn to play. Eventually it got dark and it was time for Steven to head to bed.

“Do I have to go already?” Peridot complained.

“Well, we could make it a slumber party, just the three of us!” 

Amethyst snorted. “I don’t think Peridot is the slumber party type.”

“Of course I am! I know how slumber parties go. How hard can it be?”

“Okay, I’m in too,” Amethyst said.

“Awesome!” Steven went to the closet and pulled out some spare blankets and set up some beds on the couch. “You two can sleep here.”

“Sleep? What about pillow fights?” Peridot asked, “It’s my understanding that there are pillow fights, and eating unhealthy foods, and…” Peridot was silenced by a pillow Amethyst threw at her face.

“There’s your pillow fight,” Amethyst said.

“You made a mistake challenging me!” Peridot shouted as she lifted the pillow over her head and smashed it down on Amethyst, who began laughing and grabbed another pillow, which she beat Peridot with until the stuffing fell out.

“You guys, you’re making a mess,” Steven complained.

“She started it,” Peridot said, pointing to Amethyst.

“You were asking for it,” Amethyst said, pointing back at Peridot.

Steven sighed. “We’ll clean it up in the morning, but for now it’s time for sleep.”

“Okay!” Peridot said enthusiastically. “How do I do that?”

“Lay down, close your eyes, relax and just let your mind drift while the rest of the world fades away,” Amethyst said, demonstrating.

“Alright,” Peridot tried to mimic the other gem, as she laid down beside her, but clearly too unused to the position.

“Does anyone want a toy to snuggle during the night? Peridot?” Steven held out a laid back looking cat plushy.

“Sure,” Peridot said, taking the stuffed animal, “Thanks.” 

“Amethyst?” Steven asked, holding out a Dogcopter toy.

“No thanks. We’ll share,” Amethyst said, wrapping her arms around Peridot and the toy. Peridot blushed at the sudden contact, but quickly settled into the warm hug.

“Okay,” Steven headed back up to his bed, turning off the lights as he went. “Good night. Sleep tight.”

“Yup,” Amethyst said.

Peridot let out a grunt as Amethyst hugged her so tight she lost her breath. Amethyst loosened her grip a second later, her body vibrating with a silent laugh. 

Everyone closed their eyes. Amethyst was the first to fall asleep. Her arms were no longer hugging but were draped over Peridot. Soon Steven drifted off. His slow deep breathing added to Amethyst’s light snoring. Peridot tried to keep her eyes closed. She tried to relax, but the urge to get up and do something was too strong. After an hour of resting with no sign of sleep, Peridot wiggled out of Amethyst’s arms and located her tablet.

She lowered the brightness as soon as it turned on and continued reading the fan fiction she had started earlier. Once that was done, she began browsing for others, sticking around the Camp Pining Heart stories. She looked at the different ratings. General Audiences, Teen and up, Mature, Explicit, and No Rating. Each one had a number displaying how many stories each rating had. While Camp Pining Hearts did have quite a number of stories rated General Audiences, it was almost matched by the number of Explicit stories. Peridot couldn’t figure out why Steven wouldn’t want her reading stories from this rating. Clearly it was on par with General Audience, and what could be bad about stories that were explicit. 

The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that Steven must have been confused about the rating system. He made it sound like they were about content, but as far as she could see, it must be about quality. That was the only reason she could think of for there to be a rating called Explicit. The stories marked Explicit must have the superior writing and are very clear in their meaning. After all, that’s what explicit means, to state clearly with no room for confusion. 

She clicked to filter out everything but the Explicit stories. She set the list to organize according to popularity so that she would only get the best of the best stories. The first story on the results looked promising. It was 30 chapters and still going. A browse through the tags made Peridot pause a bit. None of these seemed very professional. Most of them were comments on the story rather than brief clues to the content. Not to mention it was a Percy/Paulette fic, which was sickening in of itself, but with so many views and Hurrahs, there had to be something good about it.

Peridot knew right away that she must have been mistaken, or rather, the humans who made this site were mistaken because it was clear they didn’t know the meaning of their own language. To start with, the writing on this story was horrible, even worse than the one with the dinosaur. It didn’t even make any sense.

“Why is Percy putting a bird in a cat?” Peridot asked out loud.

“You’re dreaming. Go back to sleep,” Amethyst mumbled from the couch before going back to snoring.

Peridot tried to continue reading, but it made less sense with every sentence she read. Things kept popping into the story, seemingly taking the place of the rooster that Percy had. For some reason, both characters seemed to be enjoying whatever the heck they were doing. It was clear that there was nothing explicit about this story. Perhaps it was a human thing. 

Peridot climbed up towards Steven’s bed, gently shaking him awake.

“Peridot, what’s wrong?”

“I was unable to sleep, so I tried reading some more fan fictions. There’s a story here that makes no sense and I have a feeling that it’s full of human slang. What does this mean?” Peridot then read the paragraph that had her most confused.

Steven’s eyes grew so wide that the whites of them were clearly visible in the dark. “What story are you reading?”

“This one.” Peridot scrolled up and showed Steven the story’s information.

“Peridot, I thought I said to only read stuff from the General Audiences.”

“I was, but when I saw there was an Explicit rating, I figured there would be better stories. You humans clearly have no idea what it means to be explicit. I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Yeah, well, that’s because it’s… adult… human stuff,” Steven said, “I don’t really know too much about it. You might want to ask my dad.”

“Are you saying I have to wait until morning until I understand this story? What should I do until then?”

“Maybe read something else? Or go back to sleep. Just go back to sleep,” Steven said as he went back to sleep.

Peridot climbed back down to the couch and tried to snuggle back next to Amethyst. She left her tablet within reach in case she continued to have trouble falling asleep.

“What were you talking to Steven about?” Amethyst asked softly. Her breath in Peridot’s hair felt good.

“I wanted clarification on some of the terms I found. Apparently Steven’s not of age to know them yet.”

“What?” Amethyst said groggily, “Let me see.”

Peridot turned on her tablet, still on the same story as before, and handed it to Amethyst. Bleary eyed, Amethyst took a few minutes to read through the first little bit of the story, but once she got to the part that had Peridot stumped, she laughed. Loudly at first, but she forced herself to a chuckle to avoid waking up Steven.

“Peridot, you found porn,” Amethyst snickered.

“What’s porn?”

“It’s stuff depicting humans having sex, which is kind of like fusion, but it’s not used for fighting at all. Sex is kind of how humans multiply, only they do it for fun too.” 

Amethyst gave Peridot a quick rundown of human reproduction the best she knew and explained most of the terms. Peridot was surprised to find out that the same organ was mentioned by several different names in the same story for reasons Peridot couldn't begin to imagine.

“If it’s porn, why is it rated Explicit?”

“It’s short for explicit descriptions of sex, I think.”

“That’s not a very explicit warning then.”

Amethyst laughed. “No, it’s not. Now lay down and let’s go back to sleep.”

Peridot set her tablet back on the floor and laid down with Amethyst who pulled her into another cuddle. Peridot nestled herself into the embrace, managing to relax much more than before. As her mind began to drift, a question popped into her head.

“Have you ever had sex before?”

“Once. Heh, it’s a long and weird story.”

“Is it nice?”

“Yeah, it can be, but I think it mostly depends on who you’re with.”

“What about with me? Would you have sex with me?”

“Anytime,” Amethyst said, kissing the back of Peridot’s head, “But not right now. Right now is time for sleep.”

“Okay. Thanks,” Peridot said. She never quite fell asleep that night, but her thoughts were dreamy enough.


End file.
